Six Arrested For Raising Rebellious Flag In Indonesian Province

news from Bernama
July 21, 2008 16:24 PM

JAKARTA, July 21 (Bernama) — Indonesian police have detained six people for raising up separatist flag in easternmost province of West Papua in Indonesia at the weekend, National police spokesman Sulistyo said Monday.

The spokesman said that the six out of 46 people questioned by the police on Saturday, had been detained and allegedly involved in the hoisting of the flag known as “Bintang Kejora or Morning Star” in the province.

“The six persons were accused of involving a subversive act, by raising the flag,” Sulistyo told China’s Xinhua news agency on Monday.

On Saturday, the provincial police confiscated the flags and a number of traditional weapons including arrows and big knives, he said.

The separatist group Separatist Free Papua Movement, or OPM, has long engaged in rebellious activities in the easternmost of Indonesia. The group has used both guerrilla and diplomatic ways to achieve their goal.

The rebel claimed that it got independence in 1961, when the process of decolonization from Dutch rule had begun and the people first raised their own flag and sang their own anthem, it said.

The flag is banned for raising by the Indonesian government for the reason that it could spark and boost separatism.

Papua is now under the program of so called “a new deal for Papua” which is considered as the biggest chance for political stability, reform and progress, Indonesian state spokesman Dino Patti Djalal has said.

The Indonesian government already provided US$1.9 billion for Papua in 2006 and US$2.3 billion in 2007, said Dino.